Recently, I was taking pictures of an old school building near my home town. It was in the middle of the day therefore the shadows were to harsh for landscape shots. Fortunately, I have neutral density filters that allow me to shoot during this time of day and allow for proper exposure of the sky.
This picture was taken of the schools chimney. It appeared ready to come falling down. Anyway, I liked the shadow of the tree on the brick.
ISO 160 1/90 f/4 90mm macro-elmar
Our baby girl is not only crawling now but standing. In our family room we have large windows and we often times catch her climbing up to look outside. These pics were taken after our last snow fall. I think she was really interested in all the white stuff on the ground and window.
ISO 160 1/125 f1.4 50mm summilux
My brother-in-law and I drove around yesterday looking for abandoned structures to take pictures of. We came across this old church that was built in 1898. It’s still in use but does not having running water and still had outhouses.
The sun was beginning to go down and I was trying to capture it in the picture. This can be a challenge because it will often causes everything in the foreground to be extremely dark. I decreased the shutter to 1/750 of a second, hoping to increase the detail in my foreground but also catch a glare from the sun. This doesn’t always look good but I think it worked well in this picture.
ISO 160 f1.4 1/750 50mm
For the past 2.5 weeks I’ve been without my camera. I had to have my M9-P repaired because the shutter release kept sticking. Fortunately, it was fixed and delivered to me last week, just in time to get our baby girls 8 month picture. It’s definitely becoming more difficult to get her to sit still.
Here is a link to last months picture.
ISO 400 1/60 f/4 28mm elmarit
It can be a challenge trying to capture shots that are different than others, especially when shooting in popular tourist attractions. Every time I travel to places like Washington D.C. I take the traditional tourist shots but also try to capture a different perspective.
A friend and I were at the Lincoln Memorial taking pictures and I noticed this couple looking onward towards the Washington Memorial and I snuck up behind them and capture this shot. I was shooting without a tripod in darkness and was only able to capture this because I was using my 50mm summilux (shot at f/1.4).
ISO 1600 1/12 f/1.4 50mm summilux
Last year I did some hiking near my house. I came across this pond covered with ice. I decided to attempt a panoramic shot by taking multiple pictures and then stitching them together in Photoshop. Photoshop did a great job putting them together but I personally don’t like how I cut off the trees.
Recently, I purchased Leica’s 90mm elmar-macro. It’s called a macro but in comparison to other macro lenses you can only get 0.5m to your subject (19 inches). I bought it for taking close-ups and for portraits. It’s razor sharp and it’s collapsable, therefore it fits in my bag perfectly.
Here is a picture taken of my niece’s dog’s paw. I love the sharpness and clarity. This is an un-cropped image.
Our dog Abby is known for her facial expressions. She’s a very intelligent dog always trying to figure out what we are doing and what we are saying. I snapped this picture soon after I received my Leica M9 and 50mm summilux.
ISO 160 1/180 50mm summilux
If you go to flickr, 500px, or any street photographers website I will guarantee that you will find a picture of someone with a pink umbrella. I suppose it’s because it sticks out like a sore thumb or because of the contrast in comparison to its surroundings. Next time you see one, I bet you take a picture.
Here is my “pink umbrella” (the color is close enough). I like the guy next to her looking at his phone but I wish the “Chicago Sun-Times” dispenser wasn’t sitting there (people still read newspapers???).
P.S. I’m going to try to add my picture settings to all my pictures now (I’m always interested in others therefore I’m sure some are interested in mine). Last, since I use a Leica M9 and the aperture is set on the camera lens, sometimes I will not be able to add this info because I can’t remember what I had it set at (exif information in the pic does not include it because it ‘s a truly manual camera and lens).
ISO 160 1/1500 50mm summilux
Happy New Year everyone. We just got back from visiting our family in Illinois. It’s always enjoyable to go back but it’s also tiresome because we travel from place to place so that we can visit with everyone.
My goal with this blog in the new year is to continue to post 4-6 pictures a week and also write some reviews. I may even step outside the camera world and comment on other electronic related items (I admit, I’m a huge computer and technology geek).
We were visiting my sister-in-law and her youngest got a stethescope for Christmas. His mother is in the medical profession and I’m sure he will enjoy pretending he is like his mom.
ISO 160 1/90 f/1.4 -.33 exposure 50mm
